The present invention relates to computer mice or track balls, and in particular to those including a roller.
In one type of computer mouse, a ball protrudes from the bottom of the mouse housing, and rolls across a supporting surface. The movement of the ball is typically detected by shafts which are in contact with the ball and turn an encoder wheel having a number of slots. An LED is on one side of the encoder wheel, and a detector on the other, so that the turning of a encoder wheel, corresponding to the movement of the ball in one direction, can be detected by the intensity of light when it shines through a slot, and is subsequently blocked between slots. Track balls will have a ball mounted on the top with the housing being stationary, but similarly operate with two encoder wheels at 90.degree. angles to detect X and Y movement. Optical mice and trackballs have also been developed.
Such mice and track balls typically also have buttons which can be depressed or clicked by a user, and which depress a microswitch. These provide additional inputs to the computer, in addition to the position of the mouse or trackball. Some mouse designs have added a roller or wheel which can be used for such functions as scrolling or zooming. The roller is operated by a user finger much like a dial on a radio.
One roller design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,919 assigned to Multipoint Technology Corporation. This has a user operable roller which has a shaft extending out from it, and an encoder wheel attached to the shaft. The encoder wheel is like the optical encoders used on the mice or trackball balls. Microsoft U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,344 shows a design similar to the Multipoint one in which a shaft from the roller is connected to a separate optical encoder wheel. One Microsoft product has a shaft supporting the roller and encoder wheel, with the shaft being itself mounted on forks extending up from the lower housing of the mouse through openings in a circuit board.
Another design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,230 assigned to Apple Computer. This shows two finger rollers with a shaft which drives a belt which is connected to a pulley on a separate encoder. A similar pulley system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,455 assigned to Mouse Systems.
Yet another design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,446,481 assigned to Mouse Systems. In this design, the roller has a shaft attached to a gear outside the roller, which drives an optical encoder wheel with the gear.
In addition to the rollers being turnable, a number of designs allow the roller itself to actuate a switch. In Microsoft U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,344, this is done with a roller which pivots inward under pressure from the finger, in addition to rolling about its axis. When pivoted inward, it will depress a microswitch to send an activation signal to the computer. Mouse Systems U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,455 shows a design in which the entire housing for the roller is depressed against supporting springs, and when depressed actuates an underlying microswitch.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,303 to Apple Computer shows a graphic controller with three dials, with at least one of the dials shown with an encoder ring and detectors, with the detectors being shown on either side of the dial in one drawing. However, unlike some of the designs discussed above, the dials are on a fixed axis and cannot be depressed to actuate a microswitch and provide another input signal.
A roller design having slots in the roller wheel itself is shown in Primax Electronics' U.S. Pat. No. 5,808,568. That patent also shows a support for the wheel which pivots with the wheel to depress a switch. A related application of the Assignee of this application is entitled "Optical Mechanical Roller With Ratchet", filed Oct. 14, 1997, application Ser. No. 08/949,681. That application shows a roller with integral slots which moves up and down relative to an aligned light emitter and detector.